Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday #31

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Books That Would Be On Your Syllabus If You Taught Fantasy 101*Since we're operating under the assumption that this is my class, we'll be studying full-series instead of just single books. Clearly, my class would last 2 semesters (at least!).*

ALL of the Brandon Sanderson! - We'd start off with Mistborn naturally, but I'd want to dive into The Stormlight Archive as well too. The world-building, the magical systems, the characters arcs, the magic powers and abilities, EVERYTHING.

Lord of the Rings - Clearly. You can't study fantasy without exploring Tolkien's classic to the fullest extent. Without LotR the face of modern fantasy would be vastly different indeed.

Throne of Glass - You all know I adore ToG and SJM, but the reason it made the list is that the series starts off on the lighter side of fantasy, but with every new installment, the fantasy world expands and the magical system evolves. It's a great example of fantasy-light morphing into full-fledged fantasy.

Harry Potter - Of course: it is my favorite series after all ;) The world-building is incredible, the magical-system is brilliantly thought out and detailed with rules, and limitations. Think of the studies and discussions we could have about the Philosopher's Stone, the Sword of Gryffindor, the Marauder's Map, the Time-Turner, It's a new classic but it's a classic all the same!

Chronicles of Narnia - Another classic bit of fantasy literature that can hardly be ignored. In this case, it's the creatures that are magical while the world is relatively normal - other than being able to travel between worlds of course. It also has some examples of 'what not to do' in fantasy, in my humble opinion, especially in the later books.

Sabriel - I might be new to the series, but Nix's take on necromancy, spirits and magical powers in general blew me away. Plus the way the lead female is portrayed and developed as a character would make for some great feminist discussions. I could totally see studying it in greater depth. It'd be awesome!

Warriors - This might seem like an odd choice, especially to those who consider the series to be exclusively for children, but hear me out: The series shows how you don't have to limit yourself to writing books with human protagonists. Animals can carry a series. Animals can have magical powers. In a fantasy world, animals can build a society, elevate leaders, fight wars...all of it! I think it'd be a great way to think, and read outside of the box (and no, not the litter box LOL)

A Darker Shade of Magic - Parallel Londons. Magical powers. Unique worlds that sort of mirror each other at first glance but are really as different as can be. Kell's coat! All of it is gold. This might be a newer book but it's totally going on the syllabus.

His Dark Materials - This is another newer classic but it has so much potential in terms of study and discussion materials. The portal world premise for one. And then there's the host of magical items to deconstruct, like the compass, the knife and the spyglass. Finally we could probably spend one entire semester on daemons :)

Alanna: The First Adventure - Finally, I think Alanna would be fun to study, It's a fantasy with a feminist bent, plus it has tons of awesome classic magical objects as well. Swords, amulets and a witch's familiar, not to mention knights, healers and sorcerers!

So what do you all think of my Fantasy 101 study materials? Would you want to take my class?

I really need to get around to reading The Throne of Glass series. Also, which is shameful, I haven't read Harry Potter. Watched the movies, but never read them. They are on my shelves and I will be diving into them this winter time :)

I would LOVE to study HP in your class! We would have so much FUN, although I'd probably want to discuss Sirius all the time and make him the subject of all my papers. XD And ADSoM would be a perfect complement to HP!

I have some reading to do! I've read some of these, but not all - definitely need to check the rest out. My daughter ADORES the Warriors series, and while I've only read the first one (or two?), I definitely agree that they're worthy of your list!